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At a 45-minute hearing Wednesday in Davidson County Chancery Court, Chancellor Russell T. Perkins ruled that the Tennessee Supreme Court must weigh in on whether or not the state has to disclose if it will use Dr. Mark Walton Fowler for Darrell Hines’ Aug. 13 execution.
Fowler is the doctor who participated in Tony Carruthers’ aborted execution.
Carruthers’ attorneys later questioned Fowler’s competency, pointing to answers he gave in a deposition in this same Chancery Court case, brought by several people on death row.
Carruthers’ sister, Tonya Carruthers Hervey, has now filed a complaint against Fowler with the Tennessee Department of Health. During the court hearing on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Will Ayers acknowledged that the “cat was out of the bag” regarding Fowler, who has spoken publicly with NBC News.
Still, Ayers emphasized that identities of execution participants are kept secret by Tennessee statute and revealing the doctor for Hines’ execution would “set an unwieldy precedent.”
Plaintiffs’ attorneys pointed to Carruthers and their initial complaint, which addressed the potential ramifications of incompetent employees in executions.
In a case leading up to Byron Black’s 2025 execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court previously ruled that Perkins had exceeded his court’s authority.
In December 2025, the high court instituted an amendment requiring most execution-related cases to be filed directly with it.
On Wednesday, Perkins ruled that the state must answer which doctor it plans to use, but that order is stayed until the high court can address it. He said he only issued this order because there is “reasonable likelihood” that the state is using Fowler.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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